A Reader's Guide to Books and Reviews

Title: Darth Vader, Vol 4: End of Games (Star Wars Disney Canon Graphic Novel Darth Vader #4)
Author: Kieron Gillen, Salvador Larroca (Illustrations)
Format: Epub
Rating: 4.5/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: April 18, 2017
Book Summary: Darth Vader has been secretly pursuing his own agenda, but now it is time for the End of Games. As Inspector Thanoth returns with some startling information, it seems that Vader may have passed his master's tests. But even after finding favor in the eyes of the Emperor, the Dark Lord's schemes may yet prove his undoing... Plus, the killer droids Triple-Zero and Beetee wreak havoc in their own homicidal adventure! Marvel's in-depth exploration of the Dark Side of Star Wars goes from strength to strength!

COLLECTING: DARTH VADER 20-25
Book Review: Real Rating: 4.5

This books ends with the last several issues of the comic series, Darth Vader.

The droids, Triple Zero and Beetee, have been sent out to capture Doctor Aphra. Once she is captured, she decides it is time to tell exactly what Vader has been secretly doing behind the back of the Emperor.

Vader returns to Palpatine and learns the reason behind everything. As a Master/Apprentice, Palpatine wanted to make sure that he had chosen the right person to turn to the Dark Side of the Force. He believed that by orchestrating all of this, he believed by teaching Vader that Vader would not disappoint him in the least. Of course, Vader delivers and Palpatine believes he has become what he has desired in an Apprentice.

Cylo has escaped and Palpatine sends Vader once more out on the mission to destroy him. Vader does exactly what he was told to do and destroys Cylo completely but not without complications. Vader is captured and deactivated.

Or at least what Cylo believes Vader to be. Unfortunately while "deactivated", the Sith inside him destroys any remains of his humanity before regaining control to destroy Cylo.

When Vader returns he finds that Alphra has made the Emperor's acquaintance and this displeases Vader immensely because he does not want the Emperor to know of his side plan to find Luke. Of course Alphra does not tell and the Emperor is even more proud of Vader building up his own army, but Vader is still displeased by this act of betrayal. He has her follow him where she tells him that she did not tell the Emperor of his little side job of trying to find Skywalker. Still, Vader is displeased that he pushes Aphra into an airlock and sets her out into space.

Think that was the end of Aphra? Think again. She is rescued by the two homicidal droids and the Wookie Bounty Hunter.

As for Vader, he goes to Tatooine and while waiting for two Bounty Hunters, he destroys an entire village of Tusken Raiders....or he so thoughts..?

This was the perfect ending to the series. It was nice to see the change in Vader between Episodes IV and V. To see him destroy the last remanents of his humanity was interesting. I never thought he would resort to something like that but maybe he didn't entirely kill it off as it does appear once more in Episode VI. Maybe at the moment, he thought he had but those moments with Luke might have brought that part of him rearing back to life. I would love to see this series continue inbetween Episode V and VI. It would be interesting to see what exactly he was doing there too.

Title: Vader Down (Star Wars: Vader Down #1-6)
Author: Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen, Mike Deodato (Illustrations), Salvador Larroca (Illustrations)
Format: Epub
Rating: 4/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: April 8, 2017
Book Summary: Two of the biggest titles in comics collide in the first crossover of the new Marvel age of STAR WARS! When Darth Vader accidentally finds himself facing off against the rebel fleet on his own, he is sent crashing onto a nearby planet. Will the rebels seize this opportunity to put an end to one of their greatest enemies — or will they be made to feel the full power of the dark side? The Sith Lord may be down, but he isn't out! All your favorites are here, old and new, good and evil: Luke! Vader! Leia! Aphra! Han! Threepio, Artoo, Triple-Zero and BT-1! And in a hair-raising battle of the Wookiees, Chewbacca versus Black Krrsantan! ROOOARRGH UR ROO!

Collecting STAR WARS: VADER DOWN, STAR WARS (2015) #13-14 and DARTH VADER #13-15.
Book Review: In this series, Aphra has come across a location of Luke Skywalker and both she and Vader head to look for him. Unfortunately they also find the new Rebel Alliance base. Vader, of course, is never one to walk away from a dog fight even with the fate's stacked against him but this does go for him in a way. It brings Luke out in the fray as he engages Vader in the dog fight. This leads to both of their planes going down and the Rebel Alliance believing that all they need to do now is go down there and capture Vader.

The thing is Vader is not so easy to capture and the Rebel Alliance is about to find this out.

Aphra and her murderous droids set out to retrieve Vader. Add in Han, Leia, R2D2, and C-3PO and you have quite a bit of a mix to this story.

This was another enjoyable set of comics. Vader shows you right off the bat why he is not so easy to capture and why he really is one of the most feared bad asses in the universe. He starts killing right away and there does not seem to be any stopping him in his quest to find the son he never knew he had.

This part of the series was interesting and rather hard putting down until the very end. The writers did a very excellent job in keeping with the idea that this series stands between both episodes IV and V. There was a lot of tension that continued to build that would benefit episode V.

I would recommend this series to anyone especially a fan of Vader. It will keep you riveted from the moment you open the first page to the very last.

Title: Darth Vader, Vol 1: Vader (Star Wars Disney Canon Graphic Novel Darth Vader #1)
Author: Kieron Gillen, Salvador Larroca (Illustrations)
Format: Epub
Rating: 5/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: April 7, 2017
Book Summary: The original Dark Lord of the Sith stars in his first ongoing series! Ever since Darth Vader's first on-screen appearance, he has become one of pop-culture's most popular villains. Now, follow Vader straight from the ending of A NEW HOPE (and the pages of the new STAR WARS comic book) into his own solo adventures — showing the Empire's war with the Rebel Alliance from the other side! But when a Dark Lord needs help, who can he turn to? As Vader pursues a very personal vengeance against the Rebels and investigates the Emperor's secret machinations, he clashes with weapons scavenger Aphra and deadly Battle Droids, and returns to Geonosis to build an army. But some very powerful people don't want him to learn the truths he seeks! Guest-starring Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett and more!

Collecting DARTH VADER #1-6.
Book Review: This series follows Vader shortly after Episode IV. The Death Star has been destroyed and Vader has returned to the Emperor's fold. Unfortunately for Vader, the Emperor is not happy with the way things have happened and punishes him for it. He is forced to take orders from an Imperial Officer named Tagge.

Of course, Vader does have other plans. One of them is to find out who that young pilot was that led the destruction of the Death Star. He enlists Bobba Fett to find those answers while he, in the meantime, builds himself an army.

We meet Aphra, who is a rogue archeologist and is on the hunt for lost weapons. A very evil C-3PO version named Triple Zero, who delights in torture to gain information, and BT-1, who is a destructor droid.

Then there was the cliffhanger that made me wish the whole next episodes in the series went diferently than they had. It would have been a bit more interesting to see what exactly Vader could have done all together to possibly change the direction of Luke and find out about Leia.

This book was extremely page-turning and as a fan of Star Wars, I was thrilled to see Vader have his own comic book and we get a glimpse into what he was doing between episodes IV and V. The most interesting of this series was the fact we saw more of Vader's power than we have seen in the original series itself. He seemed much more powerful than what he was portrayed in the movies.

Still I have to say this was devouring and worth the read. I am quite looking forward to getting my hands on the rest of this series. I enjoyed it. The portrayal of Vader was excellent. So much character development really came through here with him. You see him wanting so much to break away from the Emperor but at the same time there is that part of him that is still chained to the Emperor.

Vader has and will always be my favorite villain of all time. Nothing is ever going to change that.